Composting is the natural recycling of organic waste into a nutrient-rich fertilizer. If you don’t know much about composting you may be wondering why it is becoming so popular these days and why I have dedicated a whole website to it. The fact of the matter is, though, that in order to become a more environmentally sustainable society we need to reduce our waste and composting is a way to recycle the organic matter we would otherwise throw in a landfill. Although there are many methods of composting, they are all based on the same process: the decomposition of organic matter. Since plants and food decompose relatively quickly, and at similar speeds, we are able to put them together (usually in big piles to increase the heat and pressure,) introduce oxygen, and wait for them to be broken down by the microbiology in soil. Temperatures typically are raised beyond 130 degrees F because that amount of heat is necessary to kill any pathogens in the compost. After a couple of weeks or months, depending on the system being used, the waste becomes fertilizer, as effective as any on the market today. As far as the benefits of composting go, the statistics speak for themselves. According to the EPA, Americans throw out more than 25% of the food we prepare and our country spends approximately $1 billion each year disposing of it. In 2008, about 31 out of the 32 million tons of food waste generated in America was put into landfills or incinerators (17). Because decomposition in a landfill is static (not moving), no oxygen can enter the process, which produces the greenhouse gas methane. If Americans composted their food waste instead of throwing it in landfills, we would not only be helping to reduce the concentration of greenhouse gasses in our atmosphere, but we would also be working to improve soil health, erosion resistance, and considerably reduce our need for chemicals in agriculture. So, why compost? Honestly I think the more appropriate question is why not?